Call Me Nyota
by trekkiemum
Summary: When they first met...
1. Chapter 1 - The Academy

**Chapter I The Academy**

 **Uhura**

Uhura walked briskly along the dark corridors of the huge Starfleet Academy compound. All the halls and corridors were deserted. No wonder, it was way past midnight and soon dawn would be breaking. She had spent another sleepless night in the long range sensor lab trying to intercept alien messages. It was not a duty, not an assignment. She volunteered because the task held fascination for her. It had been three nights in a row, a steady searching through the communication channels throughout this side of the galaxy - listening to snippets of conversations in many languages.

She's good at that. Her career path was towards communication officer, her subject xenolinguistics and she excelled at it, speaking many of the languages and dialects spoken by the members of the Federation. She felt a deep satisfaction whenever she's successfully intercepted messages and translated them. It could be useful intelligence for Starfleet, but that wasn't her primary motivation. Her main motivation was her passion for alien languages, her need to keep honing her skills. And of course, also her desire to serve in the new Starfleet flagship, USS Enterprise, due to have her maiden journey next year when she graduated. That ship would only accept the best. That's why she's been at it many a night. She knew she wasn't doing her body any favours by these long nights. Already she could feel cold creeping in. Before opening the door to her room she made a mental note to visit the clinic tomorrow for some vitamins to fortify her immune system.

She opened the door quietly so as not to wake up Gaila, her Orion roommate, but it turned out the stealth wasn't needed at all. Gaila wasn't there. She's probably out in a boy's room somewhere. Gaila was very promiscuous. She rarely spent a night on her own – usually she either spent it out at the room of the guy she happened to be seeing that week or she'd bring a boy (or boys) here, which Uhura hated. She'd been begging Gaila to stop bringing her boyfriends here. To Uhura, the room was supposed to be a sanctuary, a safe and quiet place where they could retire from the world. But with Gaila, bedrooms simply functioned as places to have sex. It's strange, because Gaila was a highly intelligent person - her career path was towards computer technician, she worked at one of the computer labs and Uhura understood she's quite good at what she did, not at all the empty headed party girl she was often thought of. Uhura felt it a waste of time to try and understand Gaila. Luckily Gaila respected her enough that she would only bring a guy here when she knew Uhura wouldn't be around. Which was still annoying, but something she had had to get used to, living with Gaila.

With a thankful thought that at least that night she could have the room all to herself, Uhura tossed her clothes carelessly on the floor and threw herself on the bed and immediately fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.

It seemed that she only had a few minutes of sleep when Gaila's cheerful good morning woke her up.

"Oh goodness, Gaila. Stop the racket. Keep your voice down! What time is it anyway?" she asked.

"It's already 8 in the morning, sleepyhead. Don't you have a class this morning with Mr Ice, that pointy eared favourite instructor of yours?" Gaila responded.

"Oh shit! I'm late!" Uhura said while jumping out of bed to the bathroom, swearing at herself for forgetting to set the alarm.

Half an hour later, out of breath and sweating, she crept into the back of the hall of Mr Spock's class, which is full of students. The guy whom Gaila called Mr Ice is a Vulcan. Or to be precise, half Vulcan half human. But it seemed that he inherited more Vulcan traits than human traits, not only his looks but his manner - he didn't smile, didn't understand or know how to joke, always serious, always kept his distance from everybody. But he's brilliant. Super brilliant, in fact. His brain worked almost as fast as a computer, it's encyclopaedic and it's always logical. Uhura heard that his intelligence is way above average, even among Vulcans. Some cadets called him Mr Robot because of his brain power, his demeanour and his cold and impassive face. But despite all the nicknames, he remained one of the most popular instructors. Somehow his Vulcan-ness drew the student's curiosity; there were very few Vulcans at the Starfleet Academy. In fact Spock was the first. Why a brilliant young Vulcan would choose to study at the Starfleet Academy instead of at the prestigious Vulcan Science Academy had baffled a lot of people. But Spock was an intensely private person. He would never discuss his history with anyone, so the students had to be satisfied with the gossip and speculations.

Uhura sat down next to a few girls a year her senior. They were all craning their necks, attention rapt at what Spock was saying. It had baffled the whole Starfleet Academy teaching staff how popular this young Vulcan was as an instructor. Perhaps he mesmerised them by the way he talked - precise grammar, perfect diction, dispassionate and clipped tone. One thing is sure, the students respected and trusted him because he's always fair and just, he didn't get angry or raise his voice. He barely left the Academy himself, only graduating two years ago and was still pursuing the post-graduate degree. But when he took over Professor Skinner's class last term when Skinner had to take time to rest due to a mild heart attack, suddenly the usually scary Advanced Computer Programming subject became less daunting. Spock had a knack for explaining the most difficult subject simply and succinctly. Somehow his brilliant brain could unravel the most complicated mathematical equations or computer codes and lay it down in simple terms for mortal beings like most of the Starfleet Academy cadets. He's so good they gave him 3 other subjects to teach.

Spock was explaining the wrong answers students made in the last exam, but his eyes turned briefly at Uhura when she came in. Which made her blood flow a bit quicker. She had a thing for intelligent men. If Gaila liked eye candy, flamboyant and brash guys, like their classmate Jim Kirk for example, Uhura preferred quiet, clever, brainy guys. Mr Spock definitely filled that criteria. Not that he wasn't attractive. Despite his pointy, Vulcan ears and strange hair style, he could be very attractive, Uhura thought as she looked on appreciatively at the instructor. He's lean and tall, back ramrod straight. And he's very strong too. She'd seen him on a hand-to-hand combat - an official competition, part of the curriculum - against one of the biggest brutes in his class. Even though Spock seemed small compared to the opponent, he seemed to win effortlessly. The competition was a bit unfair, really. Everyone knew Vulcans are a lot stronger physically than humans; why matched him against a human? They should have asked a Klingon to fight Spock. And how would it feel to be held by a pair of strong arms like his…..

Uhura shook her head to shoo away the images. Then she heard Spock's question.

"Something you disagree with, Cadet Uhura? You were shaking your head."

Uhura flustered, "Oh I'm sorry Commander. It was nothing. I was not properly concentrating. My apology."

Spock shot her a sharp and penetrating look and Uhura looked down to avert her eyes. Ugh that was embarrassing, Uhura thought. Better focus her thoughts on the subject on hand and concentrate. With that she delved into the lines after lines of computer programmes appearing in her computer screen.

At lunch time Uhura sat alone on a table near the window. She wasn't in the mood to sit with her classmates. Her thought wasn't at her food as she absentmindedly chewed and swallowed her lunch. It was elsewhere, thinking about the frequencies she needed to target tonight.

"Hi beautiful. Let me guess what you're thinking of. MMhhh…. me?" Suddenly the voice of the incorrigible James Kirk jarred her thoughts.

"Why don't you stop it, Kirk, you know I'm not interested. Go and flirt with Gaila and her friends." She answered coldly, but with a smile. Kirk likes women and he'd flirt with anything in skirt. He and Gaila would be perfect match for each other.

"Ah Uhura. You know me. Before I get to know your first name I will not stop." Kirk had this obsession about getting to know her first name. Uhura had never told anyone in the academy her first name - everyone called her by her last name, Uhura. Where she came from, first names were only used between people who are very very close. Or family. But she hadn't had anyone calling her by her first name for many, many years. "There you go again, dreaming, Uhura. You need someone like me to sit next to you and talk to you, you're too attractive to sit alone at lunch time."

Jim Kirk was a star student in his own way. He was clever and charismatic, but he had a tendency to avoid work. Somehow though, he always managed to pass all the tests. She wondered whether all of it was achieved honestly. He probably cheated, or helped by the many members of his 'gang'. Kirk was always very popular, both among girls and boys. The girls vied for his attention and the boys accepted him as their leader. A natural leader, that's what Kirk was. Flamboyant, confident, with an ego the size of a giant planet, brash, always taking risks - an adrenaline junkie, Uhura mused, but possessing a strange instinct to always make the right decision, and exceptionally good at thinking on his feet, very creative. He was brilliant in his own way. Or maybe he's just exceptionally lucky. But he's loyal and kind too, when he's not being a totally jerk by flirting right and left.

Kirk had been hitting on her since day one. In fact, since they first met at that pub in Iowa, where he, a farm boy, not yet a Starfleet cadet, was knocked to a pulp by Uhura classmates for flirting with her. They were startled to find out that he enlisted the day after, and even more so when they found out he was the son of George Kirk, the famous Captain of USS Kelvin who died saving the lives of many of his crew. It was probably hard to always be compared against such a heroic dad. Probably that's why Kirk was the way he was. Trying to prove himself and get out of the dad's shadow. Anyway, whatever Jim Kirk was, Uhura wasn't interested. Kirk was definitely not her type.

She finished her lunch in a hurry, paying no attention to Kirk's chattering next to her. Once done she just stood up, cleared her tray and went out, ignoring Kirk's protestations.

She stopped by at the clinic and asked from Dr McCoy some immune system boost. Leonard McCoy, the ever careful and kind doctor couldn't be more different than Jim Kirk. Yet they are best buddies. Unlike Kirk, McCoy was actually quite likeable. He always looked grim and serious - there was an almost permanent scowl in his face - but he had a huge stockpile of witty, very funny, often sarcastic, metaphors and quotes that would make her laugh, but today he was truly serious.

"You know, no matter how much fortifications I give you, if you don't sleep enough, you will fall sick, Uhura. You are no Vulcan. Mere mortals like us do need sleep." He said.

Uhura gave him an affectionate peck on the cheek, and he rolled his eyes. With a smile and a thank you Uhura left him. She had one more class today, her favourite, Advanced Phonology. Not only it was her favourite because it was her core skill, but it was her favourite because it was taught also by none other than Commander Spock.

 **Spock**

Spock walked slowly to the second class he taught today, pondering on what they were going to discuss. He liked teaching Advanced Phonology. The class was much smaller than the other one, only 5 students. All very passionate about the subject and all worked hard to achieve proper understanding, not only good marks. It was truly a joy teaching this class. Joy, he mused. That's an emotion. Something that he shouldn't indulge in. As half human he's bound to be awashed in emotions like the humans around him. But as a Vulcan, he had to be disciplined enough to bury the emotions, to control them.

Whatever control he needed to assert over his emotions, he could not but admit that he looked forward more to this class than the other. In the Advanced Computer Programming class there were so many students, with different rate of intelligence. Some were born programmers who could grasp the concepts quickly. Some others needed close hand-holding all the way. He was always very conscientious though, resolving to make sure everyone in the class managed to follow and learn the modules properly. Still it took a lot of effort to provide guidance for everyone. Which made it easy to like the Advanced Phonology class better. The students were all excellent and bright and willing to work hard. They were more discussion colleagues than his students. Especially one. Cadet Uhura was an exceptionally bright xenolinguist. Her language skill surpassed his and it was always enjoyable to hold a discussion or debate with her.

Enjoyable, he mused, another emotion. But surely he could indulge in a benign emotion like this? Besides, it's academic discussion they were doing. It's logical to enjoy a profession one chose, he thought as he turned into the classroom and faced his students.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Assignment

**Chapter II The Assignment**

 **Spock**

Tomorrow would be the last day of the term. Then the cadets would be released for a 4 week holiday. Most cadets would return to their hometowns, but some would stay at the Academy. Spock usually stayed at the Academy, working on his own many projects. The Academy staff encouraged him doing that, as the products of his projects were always valuable. The current Kobayashi Maru simulation programme, for example, was conceived during such break. It had proven to be a valuable test for the cadets, especially those in command track, training to face the unthinkable and be good captains of the Starfleet starships.

Spock was working in his small office, listing possible projects to fill his break when the comm buzzed.

"Commander Spock, this is Admiral Marcus. Could you please come to my office at once."

"Aye, Admiral. On my way." Spock responded. It's not very often that the head of Starfleet would call a lowly Starfleet Academy instructor directly, but Spock did not speculate why. He donned his dress uniform hat and went out to one of the transport tram connecting the Academy with the Starfleet headquarter. Once at the headquarter he reported to the guard at the lobby and was brought to Admiral Marcus' office.

"Sir," He said and stood to attention in front of the Admiral.

"At ease Commander Spock. And do sit down. I'll be as brief as possible. As you know, Commander, we are not officially at war with Klingons. Yet. But the wind of war is coming. We would prefer it not to happen and we are doing all we can to avoid it. One of the things we have done is to strengthen our intelligence services. Yes, we spy on them and on others. And we need your expertise."

Spock offered no response, but continued attentively watching the Admiral, who carried on his monologue, "We have a special unit, Commander, called Section 31, which is actually our intelligence branch. Don't worry, we are not doing anything unethical. I know you teach interspecies ethic and that you rather like following all rules and regulations. Nothing I'm going to ask you is unethical. Section 31 needs support because they do not have enough people to intercept, decrypt and translate messages. Something you can't trust a universal translator on. I know you are an exceptionally good computer programmer. I have also heard that you have a special group of students who are bright xenolinguists. We need you to work out a programme to systematically sweep an area and intercept and filter messages relevant to our intelligence, in all and any language we know. The project is called Project Rossetta and will start immediately. I have informed the Academy Director and obtain a release for you and one or two of your students to work for me. You choose which students to work with you. Please report for duty at Section 31 tomorrow morning. Needless to say, this is confidential."

"Very well, Sir. Thank you."

Spock thought about the project with interests. This will be a challenging one, developing a programme clever enough to filter relevant messages, encrypted and in many languages. Yes, he's definitely interested. He then thought about which student to choose to help him. Immediately Uhura's face appear in his mind. It's only logical to think of her, he mused, as she is by far the best xenolinguist currently the Academy had.

After the class that afternoon Spock asked Uhura to stay back and asked, "Cadet Uhura, do you have any special holiday plan? Are you going home to your family?"

Uhura, still flustered from being so near Spock without anyone else around, answered quickly, "Not really, Sir. I do not plan to go anywhere. My plan is to stay in the Academy." Inwardly, she made a mental note to find excuses to cancel the trip with Gaila and Zeta to a beach resort she had previously agreed to. She'd do anything to help Spock. Hopefully it would involve working in close proximity to him.

Spock answered, "Very well. I have a project I think you can help me with." Then he explained what Admiral Marcus had said this morning.

 **Uhura**

Getting out of the classroom, Uhura found it really hard to contain herself – she wanted to run to the nearest hill and shouted hurray from the top. She felt like jumping up and down. It was a dream came true. She'd been invited, picked, chosen, to work on a highly secret section of Starfleet! She was noticed! And she would be given a chance to use her skills in practice, in an official assignment!

On top of that, on top of that, she would be working with the hero she'd been worshipping all this time. Commander Spock, with his cool brainy persona, the subject of her dreams, would actually be working alongside her. She just couldn't find any word to describe this happiness. She's simply in heaven.

So occupied was she with all the happy thoughts that she forgot to invent excuses to Gaila and Zeta. She only remembered it when she bumped into them at the corridor just outside their room, and Gaila chirped cheerfully, "Uhura! You look so happy, thinking about our upcoming trip? You bet it's going to be fun. Mexico is so full of gorgeous males!"

Called abruptly down to earth, Uhura responded, "Gaila, Zeta, I am so sorry I won't be able to go with you." Mind whirling trying to invent some plausible excuses, she walked inside.

Gaila's face fell as she followed her in. "Oh no Uhura. Come on! You've said you'll come. Come on, it will be fun. We always have fun holidaying together. We can always move to a quieter place if you don't like the noisy hotel at the beach."

"Look Gaila, I'm really sorry, I was looking forward to it as well, but something important came up this morning. It's family matter. I have to go and meet my uncle," Uhura said.

"You've never mentioned any uncle, Uhura, nor any relatives at all for that matter," Gaila said.

Uhura felt a bit hurt. Most human cadets would go home on term breaks and spend a few weeks with family and friends. In her two years with the Academy she had never been home at all. She walked into the Academy compound when she enlisted, and she never looked back. The Academy was home. Because she had nowhere else to call home. That place she left, where she came from, did it even qualify as a home? No. It was a place of messy, sad, hurtful childhood that she would never even want to visit or think of again, ever. So all this time, she had been one of only a handful of human students staying in the Academy over term breaks. Of course, there were always some extra-terrestrial students staying in campus during holiday time – they don't get to go home as often as the human students. So she'd go with the likes of Gaila and Zeta, holidaying somewhere as a group rather than staying on campus. But lately she preferred to spend her term breaks roaming the libraries and sensor labs, honing her skills. Because she's aiming for something. Something to prove herself, to show those people back where she came from, that she could soar higher than them.

"Oh Uhura, I'm sorry," Gaila said hurriedly when she saw the hurt look in Uhura's face. "I didn't mean to pry into your personal life. If you can't go then so be it. I hope next time we can go together again. You've been too serious lately, girl! Where's this happy girl I knew before? Don't work too hard. You're already top of the class anyway. You'll get any assignment you want. So relax a bit. Oh allright, I tell you what, if your business finishes early, call us and come to us, ok?"

Uhura smiled and said, "Thanks Gaila. I will."

Gaila and Zeta walked out. After checking briefly that the door had been closed and Uhura out of hearing Zeta whispered, "You know, honestly I am glad she won't be coming with us this time. She'd be a party pooper, Gaila. I really don't understand why you're so faithful to her. She's too prudish, no fun at all."

"Hush!" Gaila responded mildly, "Uhura's alright. She didn't use to be this serious. Lately she's been too bookish and a bit of a loner for her good. But not all the time. She doesn't like boys the way we do but she's alright, actually. I like her."

The next morning Uhura found Spock standing still, hands clasped at the back, at the platform of the transport station, waiting for her and the tram to get to Starfleet HQ across the channel.

"Good morning, Commander," she said.

"Good morning, Cadet Uhura."

They stood side by side but did not speak again until they arrived at the Starfleet HQ, where they reported to the guard, got security checked, and were brought down deep underground in a lift. At B5 level they were taken out and led through a row of offices full of computers that buzzed with noises and blinking lights, to a small room at the end. Inside, an officer sat on a desk in front of his computer.

"Commander Spock, Cadet Uhura, I am Commander Ross, head of the Alien Communication Interception desk at Section 31. Throughout Project Rosetta, you will report to me. Admiral Marcus has given you the background?"

"Affirmative, Sir." Spock responded.

"Then please start right away. You will have the project parameters and all the detailed information needed in the set of computers we leave in the next room. I want you to study it carefully and come back to me with a plan by tomorrow."

They were left in their work room, where Spock silently sat in front of a computer. Uhura did the same and started to delve into the many documents there. The information was hard to digest and she had to concentrate hard. At first her mind kept wandering off. Was this what she had dreamt her exciting assignment with Spock going to be? Definitely not. But how stupid of her to think that being with Spock would be very exciting. She had heard of him by reputation and had sat in his classes. In flesh he certainly wasn't the hero she worshipped in her dreams. Trying hard to wipe the thoughts out of her mind, she concentrated on the documents and finally, after getting to the main part, past the project definitions, started to find it interesting.

"Do you have a plan already, Cadet Uhura?" Spock's voice suddenly filled the silent room, making Uhura jumped.

"It appears I have startled you. My apology." He said.

"It's ok, Commander. I was just so deep into the documents, I forgot where we are." She responded, annoyed at herself for being so embarrassing. She added hurriedly, "I think I can give you some definitions and parameters, Sir, based on the messages I have encountered and intercepted during the sessions in the long sensor labs."

"Indeed, I have heard that you actually spend many nights in the lab, on top of the standard time required by the Academy. If I may ask, why?"

"It is no different from the projects you work on, on your own initiatives, during your term breaks, Sir. Something useful to do, something you're interested in. In my case it is also to hone my skills at the languages. I would like to be able to qualify to join the USS Enterprise crew after graduating."

"Fascinating." Spock said while watching her intently.

Uhura's heart quickened and she blushed. She tried to hide it by busying herself to search for her own documented intercepted messages. "Here, Sir, are my documented find. There is also a whole archive full of other such documents. I can go through them and find useful identifiers and key words, Sir, which will help you with the algorithms."

"Please proceed, Cadet." Spock said.

That day and the next few days moved in a blur for Uhura. The project was challenging, she had to trawl through copious amount of data and find patterns. Which is difficult considering the wildly diverse grammar and syntaxes in the languages they have to deal with. She fed whatever she found to Spock, who worked on it and came back to her with revised algorithms, which she needed to run through her database again.

They worked well together. They would come at the same time in the morning, made a beeline to the room and worked and worked. Then at lunch break they would go together to the canteen, sat face to face in a table and ate quickly without exchanging many words, then walked back to the room to work again. Occasionally she would make a cup of tea to refresh herself, but Spock didn't seem to need any. They worked late. At the end of the day Uhura would be exhausted, but Spock didn't seem to be tired at all. When she observed this he simply answered that Vulcans did not need as much sleep as humans. But he duly stopped working at 8pm and they would walked together to their assigned lodgings.

Even though they did not speak much to each other, other than when they brainstormed or went through the programme together, it was an enjoyable time for her. She began to understand Spock more. She enjoyed their intellectual exchange and even the companionable silence they have during lunch time or the journey to and from work. The silence didn't seem to be awkward at all, it felt natural. They understood each other.

At the end of two weeks their programme had been assembled and was ready to be tested on the real thing. They were brought to one of the sensor labs at the Starfleet HQ, which are bigger and more sophisticated than what they had at the Academy, and were given access to install the programme. Then they sat down side by side on a desk, earpieces on, to start observing and overseeing the machine intercepting and interpreting messages, automating the tasks that used to have to be done by a horde of people like Uhura and her xenolinguist classmates.

They had to go back down to the work room at the basement to revise and refine the programme, then tested it again, refined it and tested it again, until they were happy with it. But in the end the project finished ahead of schedule. The programme was installed and functioning properly in all sensor labs in both the Starfleet HQ and the Academy. Both Commander Ross and Admiral Marcus were happy. Uhura was ecstatic. Her name on a useful programme, the achievement recorded in her Starfleet dossier. Spock? Impassive as usual, this wasn't his only achievement, nor was it the best. But Uhura did detect a hint of satisfaction, and occasionally a glint of pride in his eyes.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Name

**Chapter III The Name**

 **Uhura**

The next term went on as normal. There was something missing though, for Uhura. After the excitement of Project Rosetta during the last term break, there was no more close contact with Commander Spock. She didn't sit in any of his classes anymore. This term he taught Tactical class, a subject she had done last year with a different instructor. Life on the personal front suddenly didn't seem to be too exciting anymore. Her career path remained her only focus now. She still spent a lot of time in the long range sensor lab. She also helped out at Starfleet diplomatic section by translating special documents they couldn't trust a universal translator to do.

She went out with Gaila and her friends from time to time, or with Hendorff and the boys in her class. Kirk still hit on her also, but he seemed to be courting Gaila now. A bit suspicious, but she didn't really care. They had similar personalities. Gaila could hold her own against Kirk.

Uhura felt life is a bit empty. Until one late night, when she was walking back to her room after a long session at the lab. She was walking rather slowly, her thought going here and there randomly, when she bumped into someone.

"Cadet Uhura."

"Commander Spock! My apology, I was distracted."

"I was actually going to the sensor lab to look for you. Will you please walk to my office this way."

Uhura followed Spock into his office. He said, "Section 31 HQ in London needs to integrate our programme with their more advanced tracking system. Then several other regional HQs on earth will need the same. After that it will be the Starfleet outposts in 4 other neighbouring systems. I have been asked to handle that. The schedule to leave is the day after tomorrow. I hope you will be joining me."

"Certainly, Commander. I will be very happy to."

So they spent a whole month away on Project Rosetta II, setting up their programme in several Starfleet Section 31 desks - London, Tokyo, Sydney, Buenos Aires. It was one of the happiest time in her life - she got to spend time doing the job she loved, with the man she loved. He didn't love her back, she knew, but that's not important. He didn't love anyone back anyway.

The trips to the Starfleet outposts were most interesting. Uhura had never done long interplanetary journeys. She'd been to the moon base and Mars base, as part of the Academy's field trips, but never to anywhere outside of the Solar System. She'd never been on a warp drive. Cadets got to spend internship for a month or two inside a Starfleet starship or a Starfleet outpost at the second term of their last year. That would only be next year for Uhura. So she was very excited - like a child she explored every part of the small starship she was on. Spock was kind enough to show her around and help her learn. He'd been science officer on short missions in two starships before. She got excited about the new things she encountered, things she usually only encountered inside the simulator. The planets were interesting too - they could be so different from earth. One was completely covered in ice and snow, the next one mostly covered in desert and the last two were completely covered in water. As Spock would say it, fascinating.

 **Spock**

Spock approached the assignment with his usual detached interest. It is a good assignment, each of the environment they had to set up the programme in was unique, the sensors different and the equipments diverse. So each provided a mild challenge, enough to keep him from boredom.

What made the trips interesting was his companion. Somehow he found Uhura's presence very agreeable. When before, during the making of the Rosetta programme they did not talk very much with each other, now they talked a lot. Never on personal things, always a discussion - about history, science, language, ethic, computer programming, current affairs. Spock found Uhura's opinion interesting. He learned to respect her quick intellect and strong opinion on things.

She also spoke Vulcan surprisingly well, given that it is quite a difficult language and share no root whatsoever with standard Federation. It was quite enjoyable to converse with her in his native language. He didn't get to do that very often.

When the project ended and they had to go back to earth to their respective lives, he felt a little disappointment. No, not a little. It's a lot, actually. Something was missing from his life - there's a big hole now where there wasn't before. The whole was in the shape of a particular woman. I need to ponder more about this, he said to himself.

 **Uhura**

At the first term of her fourth, or last, year in the Academy, Uhura got too busy to think of anything else. Term 1 in the fourth year was the written exam term. They had exam every week. Even lazy guys like Kirk somehow had to put in some work. Everyone in her class walked about like zombie, from nights after nights of cramming.

At the last of the exams Uhura drew a long sigh of relief. She could now have some rest. She was walking down the flight of stairs of the exam hall when Commander Takei, one of the Academy instructors on xenolinguistics, called her. He asked her if she's excited about Project Theta.

"Project Theta, Sir? I'm afraid I have not heard about it."

"Oh, that is a bit odd. You did very well at Project Rosetta I assumed you would be the one picked for Project Theta. Hmmm… maybe they just haven't told you."

"Sir, where can I find more information about this?"

"Commander Ross from Starfleet HQ is here visiting me at the Academy at the moment, so why don't you walk with me to my office and you can ask him yourself. He enquired about you this morning."

Commander Ross was very complimentary about her. He explained that he's in the Academy again because Starfleet needed help again from the Academy's best people. He explained what Project Theta was and that he had just spoken to Commander Spock, who had willingly accept the assignment. Just like in Project Rosetta, in this one Spock would also need some help from a xenolinguist and a communication officer candidate. Commander Ross suggested that Uhura send her credentials to him and Spock and offer her candidacy. So Uhura went immediately to the main library, sat at one of the computer terminals there and updated her cv. Fifteen minutes later she sent the cv to Spock and Ross.

She was so looking forward to doing another special project with Spock. After coming back from the interplanetary trip they only talked a handful of times, although they often bumped into each other in the long range sensor lab or the library. Uhura wasn't sure what project he was working on but he's often in those two places.

The only time they actually spent more than a few minutes together was through serendipity. She was out on a dinner in town with Gaila one night when Gaila suddenly deserted her for a random guy she met. Uhura had not recovered from her shock at being left alone when suddenly she saw Spock, standing at the restaurant door looking at her. When she smiled and waved at him he came right away and sat on Gaila's empty chair and they ended up having dinner together. Then they walked back to the Academy together. They stopped at a small garden on a small hill overlooking the town. They sat at the bench there, looking at the stars and talked about things - just like they did during Project Rosetta II.

Remembering that she smiled. She wanted to have more of that kind of companionship with Spock. Working on a project together would be perfect. She couldn't wait to get the confirmation of her placement in Project Theta team.

When two days later Uhura checked her computer and saw a message from Spock she was thrilled. She couldn't wait to open and read it. But she read the message and was left shocked, hurt, disappointed, angry. All at the same time. She couldn't believe that she was not chosen for this project. She's the best xenolinguist the Academy had ever had, she had dedicated a lot of time in handling subspace communication and therefore has a lot of experience. She worked long, extra hours on the various sensor labs to intercept messages. She had intercepted and translated hundreds and hundreds of messages from many different languages. No; she had _accurately and successfully_ translated messages _relevant_ for the Starfleet daily operation and its intelligence operation. Something not many people had managed to achieve. She received Gold rating for exolinguistic skills at the Oxford Invitational, placing Starfleet ahead of other prestigious institutions. Commander Spock himself had stated that she has exceptional aural sensitivity, an unparalleled ability to identify sonic anomalies in subspace transmission tests. Surely with all these she would qualify?

And she thought they had worked very well together. Actually, Commander Ross had commented on how well Spock and Uhura worked together! She felt the same and she was so sure Spock had felt the same. Spock even commented once on how well Uhura could guess what he would need. Was that a lie? Who would Spock pick this time? Somebody else who can work better with him? Uhura felt tears of anger beginning to gather in her eyes.

Ignoring Gaila's concerned question, she burst out of their room and half walked half ran to Spock's office, intending to question the decision. She knew she should have tried to calm down first before confronting Spock, but she was too angry to be able to do that. Her irate at the injustice and her disappointment at the lost golden opportunity drove her ever madder as she got nearer Spock's office.

Spock shared office with three other junior instructors. But she knew that at this time of night only Spock would still be in. Unlike this cold pointy-eared robot, other people had a life outside work, she thought angrily.

As she had guessed, the lights were still on. She knocked on the door, in her anger, a little harder and louder than she had intended to. When Spock opened the door, she brusquely said, "Commander, a word please."

Spock looked a little taken aback but he only raised one of his eyebrows, opened the door wider and let her in, saying, "Of course, Cadet."

Uhura found it very difficult to contain her emotion. She knew her anger showed in her visage and her words, which tumbled out uncontrollably out of her, "Sir, I have just received your message. As I feel I am the strongest candidate, I would like to know the reason you have rejected my candidacy to be part of Project Theta. With all due respect, I would like to know where this decision had come from, you or the Admiral. If it's from you, I'm here to fight my case and to attempt to change your mind."

Spock quietly said, "I was given the authority by the Admiral to choose who I should work with. So the decision was fully mine. I have not submitted the name to the Admiral, because I believe it was appropriate to let you know my decision first, Cadet Uhura. I can tell you though, it will unlikely to change, because it was not a decision that was lightly taken."

Uhura felt her heart sank. Her disappointment felt very palpable, as if it is a big lead going inside her, dropping to her stomach, making her sick. She felt like crying and tears of anger started gathering in her eyes. She tried hard to rally herself. Vulcans didn't appreciate emotions so she shouldn't give him the satisfaction knowing that he had made the right decision by not involving a too emotional human like her. Concentrating hard, Uhura swallowed her anger and stifled her sob. But a small sob did manage to escape when she asked, "Then please be so kind as to explaining to me why, Commander."

In her occupation with controlling her emotions she failed to notice that Spock had not remained entirely emotionless. His face still looked impassive, but his eyes, the set jaw and the tightening of the hands clasped behind his back showed that he's affected. By what though? Uhura also didn't notice that he started opening his mouth several times to talk but then closed it again, as if uncertain.

The room was very quiet for what seemed like eternity. Uhura was startled a bit when Spock finally spoke quietly and unhurriedly, "Cadet Uhura, I can see that I have greatly hurt your feelings. I am very sorry for that. I will attempt to honestly and clearly explain the reason behind my decision. What I am about to say may at some point be uncomfortable to you. When it happens please do not hesitate to stop me. I have no desire to distress you further."

Uhura looked up at him, wondering what he was going to say.

"You were right when you said that you are the strongest candidate. Indeed you are. I am very familiar with almost all of your work. They are of excellent quality, so I can safely say that your xenolinguistic ability is currently unmatched by anyone in the Academy. You also have the most experience, after the many hours that you have put in the labs, also after working with me in the Project Rosetta. From the point of view of capability only, indeed you are the most suitable candidate."

Spock continued, a little hesitantly, "However, the project requires the two members of the team to work in close proximity to each other for a very long period of time, isolated from others. I was therefore given leave by the Admiral to choose whomever I can comfortably work with to ensure the project is uncompromised and the mission accomplished."

"We worked very well together in the previous project, Sir!" Uhura interjected.

"Indeed, Cadet Uhura, we did." Spock stopped a bit, looking a little unsure on how to proceed. "We worked very well together. So much so that it affected my feelings. As I mentioned earlier, Cadet Uhura, do not hesitate to stop me at any point, should you feel uncomfortable with what I say….. During our previous project, I found that working, communicating and even simply being with you very agreeable. No, it wasn't only agreeable. It was intensely enjoyable. I did not realise it at first but as I thought about it, I realised that I had become deeply attracted to you, physically, as well as mentally. Contrary to what people think, Vulcans do feel emotions. In fact, Vulcans feel very deep emotions. Which was why we strive hard to overcome and control our emotions. I am, however, half human. I often find it very hard to control mine. As my feelings for you are very strong and deep, I was afraid that the very close proximity that is required in the project will make it very hard for me to control it. I may, inadvertently or otherwise, make advances against you that you will dislike, thereby risking to jeopardise the project. Therefore I attempted to eliminate the risk by choosing a different partner."

Uhura was speechless; she couldn't even begin to identify how she felt that moment. She was dumbfounded, flabbergasted, stunned. She was happily surprised that this guy, her hero, the man of her dreams, actually harboured feelings for her, but she was angered that her career had to be sacrificed for a stupid thing. At the same time she felt the whole thing funny – was this guy for real? Did he just declare his love for her? If he did, this must be the most ridiculous declaration of love ever!

They stood face to face quietly for a while. Then Spock said, "I hope I have made it clear to you why I took that decision."

Uhura took a few steps forward until they stood very close. She looked up to Spock, who was much taller than she was, and said quietly, "But you based your decision on the assumption that I will dislike any advances you make, Sir."

Spock hesitated, then asked in half a whisper, "And is the assumption correct, Cadet?"

"No."

Uhura did not know what would happen next. It was her instinct that told her to do the things she just did and say the things she just said. But her instincts seemed to work well, because suddenly she could feel his left arm around her waist and his right hand at the back of her neck, pulling her to him. She closed her eyes as their lips touched. She forgot everything as his arms enfolded her, holding her tight as if he wanted to merge their bodies together.

Twenty minutes later Uhura walked dreamily back to her room. Her still shaking hands couldn't work properly, it took several attempts before she could open the door. Once inside she just threw herself on the bed. Her quick heart beats felt very loud, much louder than Gaila's soft deep breathing. She replayed in her mind the scene of the previous hour and shivered.

It's unbelievable that she had left her room in great anger and desperation, and yet barely an hour later she came back happy. She still didn't know what's going to happen, if she's going to get the project or not. After they kissed Spock was looking intently into her eyes and she could feel him shivered and he shook his head imperceptibly, as if trying to clear his mind. He held her tight again and whispered that he needed to think.

Uhura knew that her fate was still as uncertain but somehow she could not be angry - somehow she could understand the internal war Spock was having inside his head. She instinctively knew that she had opened something very novel in his life. So be it, she thought. Let him think and decide.

 **Spock**

When Uhura left, Spock remained standing still in the middle of his office. He tried to analyse the emotions he felt. There was elation, joy, happiness. It was a strange feeling, this happiness. It left him with a tingling sensation, a giddiness, an unusual lightness. He felt like he's half floating. Which was illogical. He wished he could define it better.

It was so different from the feelings he had in the past. He'd been with women before, he had dated two girls, kissed them, had sex. But it felt different. Those were mere physical needs. Something was a little off here. In kissing her he felt he had embraced something big, his whole body had shaken uncontrollably. And he felt great hunger for more. There was this need to enfold her in himself, protect her, make her one with him. It was a little scary, all these strange feelings. He felt too deep for Uhura. He could not control it.

At that moment his thought went to his mother. What would she say if she knew. She'd say do not control it. Let it flow.

If he just let it flow, let it run without attempting to control it, will it jeopardise the project, compromising the mission? Will they be able to separate the personal from the professional?

Spock mused for a few hours. It was dawn when he finally took out his computer and typed in a short message to Uhura. Then he sent a message to Commander Ross and Admiral Marcus, saying that both him and Cadet Uhura accepted the mission.

 **Uhura**

The next day after dinner Uhura spent the evening in the library to calm her thoughts. She had read Spock's messages - they will do the project together - there's no containing her joy. But she strived to control it.

When she finally walked out she saw Spock standing at the front of the library. Their eyes met and held and she shivered again, unable to say anything. Then Spock said, "Cadet Uhura, would you care for a walk?" Uhura nodded and they started walking. They did not hold hands but their hands touch lightly. They seemed to have instinctively guessed where each would like to go to, which happened to be the same - the deserted garden on the hill overlooking the town.

Once there they sat down on the bench, quietly, not talking, just enjoying the closeness, the pleasurable companionship. After a few minutes though Uhura leaned her head on Spock's shoulder and then could feel Spock's arm over her shoulder, pulling her closer. Then they kissed.

When they stopped Spock whispered her name, "Uhura."

She said, "Nyota. My name is Nyota Uhura. Call me Nyota."

"Nyota."


End file.
